Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/191

 OR, VULCAN S PEAK. T25 CHAPTER XIII. &quot;The merry homes of England ! Around their hearths by night, What gladsome looks of household love Meet in the ruddy light! There woman s voice flows forth in song, Or childhood s tale is told, Or lips move tunefully along Some glorious page of old.&quot; MRS. HEMANS. THE peak, or highest part of the island, was at its north ern extremity, and within two miles of the grove in which Mark Woolston had eaten his dinner. Unlike most of the plain, it had no woods whatever, but rising somewhat ab ruptly to a considerable elevation, it was naked of eve y- thing but grass. On the peak itself, there was very lit.ie of the last even, and it was obvious that it must command a full view of the whole plain of the island, as well as of the surrounding sea, for a wide distance. Resuming his pack, our young adventurer, greatly refreshed by the deli cious repast he had just made, left the pleasant grove t n which he had first rested, to undertake this somewhat sh? p acclivity. He was not long in effecting it, however, stan ]- ing on the highest point of his new discovery within an hour after he had commenced its ascent. Here, Mark found all his expectations realized touching the character of the view. The whole plain of the island, with the exceptions of the covers made by intervening woods, lay spread before him like a map. All its beauties, its shades, its fruits, and its verdant glades, were placed beneath his eye, as if purposely to delight him with thi *r glories. A more enchanting rural scene the young man had never beheld, the island having so much the air of cultivation and art about it, that he expected, at each in stant, to see bodies of men running across its surface. He 16*